The Daily Cross Hatcher interviewed comic book art historian Craig Yoe about his most recent book, Secret Identity, which is about the rare and nearly forgotten fetish art books drawn by Superman co-creator Joe Shuster.
We sat down with Yoe at the recent MoCCA Festival in midtown Manhattan for a conversation that largely revolved around the latter, a book devoted to the long lost SM drawings of Superman artist, Joe Shuster, which Yoe happened to stumble upon at a rare art sale.
Were the Shuster pictures fairly well-known in certain circles before the book was published?Craig Yoe: No, they were totally unknown. I discovered one of the booklets at a rare antique book sale, and what made it so rare was that they probably only printed about a thousand copies of these. The mayor of New York assigned 80 detectives who descended on the Times Square bookstores who were selling these under the counter. They arrested the owners, and the case eventually went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, in a sad day for freedom of the press, banned these and ordered the copies destroyed. As a result, these are very, very rare and unknown to students of comic history.
Interview with comic art historian Craig Yoe
